What Is Keyword Research and Why You Should Do It?

Last Updated On February 25, 2019

< Back

Keyword research is the first step to creating an SEO campaign. It’s the bread and butter of digital marketing and should be your number-one priority.

If you’re learning about SEO and how to do digital marketing, there is no doubt that keyword research is something you’ve read a lot about. But, why do people bang on about it so much? If you’re keen to skip this step — don’t! Every time somebody searches the internet, they are using keywords. This first part of our SEO guide will explain what exactly keywords are and why they need your undivided attention.

What is a Keyword Search?

A keyword search is the words used by internet users to find what they are looking for. If I’m looking for a new pair of trainers, I might search for ‘white trainers for women’ or ‘Nike white trainers for women’. These are keywords. Some keywords are long and some are short.

If keywords are what users are putting into their devices, then keyword research is what businesses need to do. Businesses need to do keyword research to discover what keywords their target audience are using. If you don’t know what people are searching for, how are they going to find you?

But, it’s not only users who are searching for keywords. Google and other search engines will be reading the content on your website to find keywords and rank you for those terms. This is where SEO starts.

Why is Keyword Research so Important?

Keyword research is the process of finding the keywords for your business and understanding how you are ranking or could rank for these keywords on Google.

There are so many reasons why keyword research should be at the forefront of a digital marketing campaign. Here are some of the most crucial reasons why:

Knowing your keywords helps you to understand your brand and your business. What are you selling? What are your services? If you don’t know this, identifying your keywords can help you to understand who you are.

Keyword research can tell you vital information, such as where you rank for keywords, which keywords are easy to rank for and which keywords your competitors are ranking for.

Keyword research can tell you what people are searching for, rather than what you think they are searching for.

Search engines can only rank your website if they know what your business is. Targeting keywords on different pages of your website means Google can then rank you for those keywords.

Identifying keywords to use in blogs and outreach can drive traffic to your website.

Keyword research is the starting point for any digital marketing campaign, but it should be an ongoing process. You should frequently check your keywords and find out how you are ranking compared to your competitors.

After your keyword research, create content and pages focused on those keywords. Combined with various other SEO strategies, this can help you to rank and get people finding your website.

Are you Ready for Your Keyword Analysis?

Now that you understand how important your keywords are, you need to start your research and keyword analysis. Our SEO guide can take you through the process of how you can do this — for free!

It can be daunting at first, especially if you don’t know what keywords you need to rank for. But, thankfully, there are some amazing tools and resources out there which can help with your keyword research and analysis.

Do you need help to identify your keywords and understand how your website can rank better? The Exposure Ninja free SEO review with our digital marketing specialists is just what you need.